Cartoons, Ninjas, and Strawberries

Everytime I animate something wether it be a short film, some commercial work or in this case my studio's animated logo there is always one inbetween drawing that really stands out to me. Above is an example from the David McBride Animation logo sequence. I put together this progression image to show you a brief idea of the animation process. Starting from the left is the rough pencil, clean up, inked and finally colored. -DM *please do not remove images from this blog.*

Growing up aside from the Ninja Turtles most of my favorite shows were on Fox Kids and mostly from Saban. Above is a cover from one of several Fox Kids magazines that were sent to me as a kid. The price says $1.00 but I never paid for them. One day they just started sending them to me. My guess would be because I would enter contests they held and they knew I was a long time watcher but who knows. As a kid all I knew is that they would send me one every month or so. One issue they sent said it would be the last one because they wanted to save paper but I think it was because they were canceling the Fox Kids block. Some great shows I remember were Power Rangers, VR Troopers, Beetleborgs, Godzilla the animated series,Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog, Digimon, Beast Wars, and Beast Machines. Above is one of the covers from a 1998 issue. Good times. -DM

Snow White Diamond Edition comes out today!!! Dopey is my favorite because he came up to shake my hand as a little kid in Disney World's Electrical parade. -DM

I found this p raying mantis out side of my house the other day. I had never actually seen one before. It was really an amazing creature. It did not seem to mind me getting in close to take its picture. I did not expect it to really do much but I thought maybe I could learn some mantis style martial arts from it. ;) -DM

While I was at the mall this afternoon, I noticed that summer was truly over and the autumn season had begun. Everything has turned over from bathing suits and sandals to Halloween costumes and pumpkins. Even though Halloween is still over a month away, some of the stores have already started stocking the shelves with Christmas items. For instance, in the Hallmark store I found some great new ornaments including a Ghostbusters car, Mickey Mouse from Mickey's Christmas Carol, and and animated flip book like ornament that I found particularly interesting. You have to turn the crank to flip the plastic pages and watch Mickey do a magic trick. All in all it was a really good day. I like this time of year when everything is just starting to get into the holiday season.     -DM

Another great film from Hayao Miyazaki!  (Possible Spoiler Alert) Yesterday, I had the pleasure of seeing the latest film from Studio Ghibli. Ponyo was creative, imaginative, and visually stunning. As with all of Miyazaki's films the layouts were amazing. I particularly loved the house on the cliff that Sosuke lived in. One of my favorite things was to watch how they animated Sosuke. The detail that really made him feel like a little kid. I especially like the shot were he has to duck under what appears to be a bamboo fence to get to his school. All of the work with the ocean was beautiful, it made my hand hurt just thinking of animating all of those waves and tiny bubbles. One of the most breath taking scenes was when Ponyo was running on giant fish that were like ocean waves to catch Sosuke. As an animator with a preference to create hand drawn animation, this was most exciting for me to see. I can't remember the last time I went to the theater to see a hand drawn animated f...

A few days ago I was at the local mall, the one I have been going to all my life, and on that day I heard the sound of a train coming form inside the building. As it turns out the mall added a train that rides kids around the center area just below the food court. Not the most exciting news but it was different for the mall so I thought I'd post it.  Here is a video of what it looked like.  -DM

Hey everyone, check out this trailer for the upcoming Walt Disney Documentary. If it is not playing in your area call up your local theater and ask them to play it.

Today I went to see the latest Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. (POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT) It was absolutely amazing. I have just started to read the books, so I do not know how closely it follows the source material. In any case it was a great film and as with the fifth installment one of my favorite characters was Luna Lovegood, played so wonderfully by Evanna Lynch. I really enjoyed how this film focused on each of the main character's growth as they all dealt with new relationships and others that have been brewing for quite awhile. It was truly a magical experience. ( And my traditional movie combination of raisinets and popcorn didn't disappoint either :))   When I first entered the theater, something drew my attention right away. It was a banner for the upcoming American release of Hayao Miyazaki's film "Ponyo". This came as shock. I thought with it being a limited release of sorts that I would have to travel some distance to find ...

Growing up in the nineties I had constant exposure to the Looney Tunes. They were everywhere. TV, clothing, toys, etc... At the time, I never knew that the the shorts were made well before I was born. Some over fifty-five years. I didn't realize this because they still held up. So my question is where are they today? Occasionally, I'll see Bugs or Daffy on a birthday card but not much else. They have completely vanished from television altogether. It makes me sad to think a generation, that is a bit younger than I am, will have grown up with out what seemed like a childhood staple for so many generations before me. The only way they are available now is...well...the internet or the box set Dvds that run for close to sixty dollars each. Yeras ago they were so popular we even got successful spin off series like Tiny Toons and Animaniacs. But, now nothing. I hope in the future they will return to television so we don't end up living in a world that doesn't remember Bugs Bu...

This being my first post on my new blog it is only fitting that I discuss something really important to me, traditional animation. As a kid there was only one thing I wanted to do as a career (besides fight crime with the Ninja Turtles) and that was draw. One day, it came to me that I could merge my two passions drawing and storytelling with animation. Now, in graduate school I am starting to realize that dream as a hand drawn animator. First, I want to make something clear and say that I love all forms of animation. 3D, cut-out, clay and puppet, etc… I mean, the Pixar films are some of my favorite animated films and the Wallace and Gromit stop motion films are amazing. For now I just want to take some time to talk about hand drawn animation for two reasons. One, it is my personal preferred style of choice. Two, because for a while now any time I said I wanted to be a hand drawn animator I was made to feel as if that ship had sailed. For instance, many have said that hand drawn ...